University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
Winthrop
Minutewomen Split Two Games in Final Day of Cougar Classic
February 22, 2015 | Softball
Winthrop Box Score | Appalachian State Box Score
Mt. Pleasant, S.C. - In the final day of play at the Cougar Classic, Massachusetts picked up a 5-4 victory over Winthrop College behind home runs from Tara Klee and Quianna Diaz-Patterson before falling to Appalachian State 2-0 in the second game of the afternoon.
In the first game of the day, the defending Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Diaz-Patterson broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fifth inning with a three run home run to propel UMass to a 5-4 victory over Winthrop Sunday afternoon.
The Minutewomen took the early lead in the bottom of the first when sophomore Tara Klee clubbed her fourth home run of the season over the left field fence.
After Winthrop scored a run in both the second and fourth innings to tie the score at two, Whitney Cooper was hit by a pitch and Mikayla Panko singled through the left side to put runners on first and second with one out. Diaz-Patterson would then crush a shot to deep center field to give the Minutewomen a 5-2 lead.
After allowing one run in the sixth, UMass had a huge defensive stop when they caught a Winthrop base runner trying to advance home. The Eagles would get one more run to bring the score within one, but Caroline Raymond forced a groundout to short with a runner in scoring position to end the threat.
Raymond struck out five over seven innings en route to picking up her second win of the season.
In the second game of the afternoon, UMass' offense was staggered as they could only collect three hits against Appalachian State pitchers while leaving seven runners on base in a 2-0 loss to the Mountaineers.
In the top of the second, Taylor Carbone led off with a single to left field and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. She would move to third on a groundout, but Appalachian State's Katherine Johnson was able to force the inning's third out before UMass could do any damage.
The Mountaineers would use a two-out single to left field in the bottom half of the frame to score the games only two runs.
In the top of the seventh, UMass moved two runners into scoring position with two outs, but a fly out to left field ended the game for UMass.
Massachusetts will have next weekend off before heading to Kentucky for the Louisville Classic the weekend of March 6-8.
